Lobster & Shiitake Potstickers

This recipe has become our go to New Year's Eve appetizer overtime. Lobster and shiitake mushrooms with a little shrimp too all inside a pot sticker what's not to like or for us to LOVE. Served with sake sauce they are delectable.

Perfect for New Years with the rich lobster and not for every day because although they are not necessarily difficult they are a bit tedious and time consuming, especially if your beloved husband and in house sous- chef, co-chef went skiing to experience the recent gift of 13" of new snow in the cascades. Doable on your own but definitely requires a bit of time.

We found this recipe in Tom Douglas' Seattle Kitchen cookbook.

It's helpful when making a recipe like this to get all the ingredients together first

and then prepped to assist in getting through the various steps in making the pot stickers.

While the shiitakes and carrots cook

the lobster tails and shrimp both get lightly pureed in the food processor.

After the mushroom mixture cools I mixed them with the lobster, shrimp mixture and all other ingredients mixing gently to not make shellfish overly mushy.

Now starts the tedious part, wrapping them.

First place a small amount in the middle of the wrapper (wonton= square or gyoza=round....I started first with gyoza...more on this later..)

Now the trick is to not over stuff them, really they only need about 2 teaspoons of the filling. If you use too much they are impossible to seal and while cooking and all the filling will seep out.

To fold use a damp fingertip to wet the edges of the wrapper. Fold in half.

Then make the first of several folds along the edge.

Turning them over to create a flat bottom, hence "pot sticker."

When making them in mass quantity as I was for this party we were headed to I usually lay out 6-8 wrappers at once making a small assembly line production. This is when having an extra set of hands or a few is helpful.

It turned out on this day one package of wrappers wasn't enough to use all the filling. I could of just stopped and threw out the remaining filling...but we happen to Love this combination of lobster & shitakes and wasting it wasn't an option.

I remembered that we had made a pork version of pot stickers from a Fine Cooking recipe where we actually made our own wrappers and that they were pretty great. Luckily wrappers are made of only water & flour (still have a hard time grasping that paper mache' paste taste this good) luckily water and flour were on hand so problem solved.

I quickly made some quick dough and finished off the mass of pot stickers.

Before cooking the pot stickers I made the sake sauce which is also another of my favs.

Next I boiled the pot stickers first and then pan fried them.

This batch turned out great. We brought them with the makings of this yummy Cutie Clementine Cocktail to our friends house for 2011 New Year's Eve.

 A nice night with great people and good food.

These pot stickers are worthy of making for any occasion: holiday, celebratory or just Saturday night.

Recipe for Lobster & Shitake Potstickers:adapted from Tom Douglas’ Seattle Kitchen

• 2 lobster tails
• 2/3 pound of  prawns
• 1 Tbsp peanut oil
• 1.5 cups shiitake mushrooms
• 2 medium carrots
• 2 Tbsp fresh cilantro
• 1 Tbsp sesame seeds
• 2 tsp grated fresh ginger
• 2 tsp Chinese chili paste
• 2 cloves garlic
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 dozen wonton or gyoza wrappers
• Peanut Oil for frying

Sake Sauce

• 1/2 cup sake
• 1/4 cup soy sauce
• 1/4 cup rice wine vinegar
• 1 Tbsp sugar
• 1 small chile (serrano is best), fresh or dried
• 1 clove garlic

Coarsely chop the prawns and then process them in the food processor until they are moderately chopped. The pieces should be no larger than peanuts.
De-stem the shiitake mushrooms and slice the caps into thin strips.  Dice the carrots finely.
In a saucepan with a little bit of peanut or hazelnut oil, saute the mushrooms and carrots for about 10 minutes. Cool.

Chop the green onions and the cilantro, grate the ginger and mince the garlic.
Mix the prawns in with the mushrooms, carrots, green onions, cilantro, sesame seeds, ginger, garlic, chile paste and salt.

Lay a potsticker wrapper on your cutting board. Using a finger dipped in a glass of water, wet the edges of the wrapper. Place one tablespoon of the filling in the center of the wrapper.
Fold the wrapper by bringing two opposite corners of the wrapper together, forming a triangle.
Press the wet edges together to seal. Now wet the outside edges of the triangle.
Make small creases in the sides of the triangle.

Place the completed potstickers on a sheet of wax paper dusted with cornstarch.
From here you can either freeze the potstickers in layers (separated by wax paper) or you can move onto cooking them.
To cook the potstickers, boil a large pot of water. Drop the potstickers one at a time, but don’t crowd the pot. When the potstickers float, take a slotted spoon and remove them from the water to drain.
Heat 1-2 Tbsp of peanut oil in a large skillet over medium high heat. Make sure the oil is hot before you proceed to the next step.
Preheat the oven to 200 and place a cookie sheet on the center rack.
Fry the potstickers until they are lightly golden brown on all sides. This should take about 5 minutes total. Remove from the pan, and keep warm on the baking sheet in the oven until ready to serve.

Sake Sauce
To make the sake sauce, combine the sake, soy sauce, vinegar, sugar, chile, and minced garlic. Heat over medium heat until the sugar has dissolved. Cool the sauce before serving

Clementine Cocktail

Ingredients

• 1 fresh clementine, peeled
• 1 tsp sugar (omit if using lemon lime soda instead of club soda)
• 1 oz orange flavored vodka
• 1 oz Cointreau or Triple Sec
• 2 oz lemon lime or club soda
• reserve a few sections of clementine peel, for garnish if desired.

Directions

1. 1In a cocktail shaker, muddle/smash the clementine segments and sugar.
2. 2Add the vodka, Cointreau/Triple Sec, and ice to the shaker.
3. 3Shake briefly but vigorously (about 15 seconds).
4. 4Pour contents of cocktail shaker into glass, top off with soda.

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